To a friend who asked me to write about Paramhansa Yogananda’s statements regarding Judas Iscariot and his present spiritual status.

Master Yogananda knew Judas in India, where he had been reborn in Bengal in 1865, and was named Sarat Chandra Chakravarty. One day Jesus appeared to Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa and told him that Judas had suffered greatly in many lives and that he was sending him to Sri Ramakrishna to be put back on the path to liberation. Shortly afterward Sarat came to Dakshineswar, met Sri Ramakrishna and became his disciple.

When Yogananda knew him he was Swami Saradananda. Other disciples of Sri Ramakrishna told Yoganandaji about Jesus’ appearance to Sri Ramakrishna regarding the reincarnated Judas.

In a conversation about Saradananda/Judas, Yogananda said that he very early on displayed “an unusual” attitude toward money–the same attitude that had played a major part in his life as Judas, bring about his betrayal of Jesus. The other disciples of Ramakrishna began to tease him about this, and Sri Ramakrishna very forcefully forbade them to ever do so again, fearful that such teasing might actually awaken past negative samskaras.

Yoganandaji said that Swami Saradananda had attained liberation. So the love and mercy of God had prevailed and brought him home to union with the Divine. Surely Jesus would say with Krishna: “Understand: no devotee of me is ever lost” (Bhagavad Gita 9:31).

We have added a number of resources to our website which readers may find useful. And we have also made more of our longer articles available as ebooks.

First, we have added a Monastic Life section. This will be a continually growing section containing writings from various sources regarding aspects of leading a monastic life. Currently this contains three books by Swami Sivananda of Rishikesh, available for reading online or as downloadable PDFs. These are:

We encourage readers to download these ebooks to keep on your digital e-readers or computer. You can read any of our Amazon ebooks using the free Kindle App. And, as always, we appreciate it when you leave a review on Amazon for any title.

When I was very young there was a television program called The Big Picture. Most people live in The Little Picture with small ideas and small goals, all short term.

But some live in The Big Picture, considering their life as a whole extending through many years, realizing that the small aspects will be forgotten, but the overall character of their life will determine their future beyond this world as well as within it.

Having this perspective, I wanted to be a living sacrifice, a living offering to God! I wanted to be able to stand unashamedly before the face of God and truthfully say: “Behold, I have forsaken all and followed Thee.” To be like Christ, not just in glory but in living sacrifice, like him, “who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” This was my aspiration–the aspiration of monastics throughout the ages.

An undivided heart

Monastic life is a life of undivided loyalty to the One. Jesus Himself warns us that “no man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.” The religious egotist considers himself wiser than Christ, Whose words he tactfully ignores utterly. He knows better! He can certainly please himself and please God. (Ah, but Jesus spoke about serving!)

Those who love cannot run the risk of despising their Beloved and clinging to their own egoic god. How often we hear statements about what God “does not expect” of us and what “does not matter” to God. The problem is, when most people say “God” they really mean their ego “god,” that of course expects and cares about nothing that does not serve its own desires.

“The first time I wrote to Mother Anandamayi, in her reply she referred to me as “my friend,” which she only did in relation to monastics. Others she called “father” or “mother.” To his disciples who had left everything to follow him, Jesus, too, had said: “I have called you friends.”

The relationship of father and mother is not by (conscious) choice. A friend, however, is ours by choice. Everyone was related to Mother by nature, but only the monastics were hers by choice, therefore she called them “friend.”

So begins this podcast by Abbot George on living a life in which one can be worthy of being called a friend of God. He cites memories of Anandamayi Ma and her attitude toward monastics and non-monastics, as well as recounting what Jesus and St. Paul have to say about the “angelic life.”

About OCOY.org

This site presents the path of meditation and practical spiritual life and is a service of Light of the Spirit Monastery (Atma Jyoti Ashram), which is located in Cedar Crest, New Mexico, USA.

This site is inspired by and dedicated to Paramhansa Yogananda, who introduced yoga meditation and the goal of self realization to the American people, and whose writings reveal the underlying unity of original Christianity and original Yoga.